How to Decode a Surname Surnames Started Passing Down in Families Nicknames During the Middle Ages

110-167Chs 10-12 who am I:Who am I 22/12/08 16:41 Page 140 How to decode a surname Surnames started passing down in families Nicknames during the Middle Ages. A lot of them use The first type of surname started with the Medieval terms, or reflect Medieval names way someone behaved, or how they that were popular at the time. They are like looked. The surname Short indicates that time-capsules, because they have remained the family’s ancestor was not very tall. The unchanged for hundreds of years. They are surname White means the ancestor was fascinating because they tell you something very pale, or had white hair. Armstrong about the ancestor who had the nickname means the ancestor had strong arms. Some that became the surname in the first place. common names are nicknames written in The types of nicknames that became other languages. In Scotland and Ireland, surnames fall into five groups. Most for example, people spoke Gaelic. The surnames, wherever they are from in the Scottish surname Cameron, for example, is world, will fall into one of the same five Gaelic for ‘hooked nose’. The technical groups. term for this type of surname is sobriquet , meaning ‘nickname’. Very few people are Archers by profession today although it was a common trade in the Middle Ages. Parents’ names The second type of surname is from parents’ names. They often end ‘son’ or ‘s’. Richardson and Richards both mean ‘son of Richard’. Johnson and Jones both mean ‘son of John’. In Gaelic-speaking Scotland and Ireland, Mac (or Mc) meant ‘son’. MacDonald means ‘son of Donald’ and McGregor ‘son of Gregor’. The Irish also use ‘O’ to mean ‘descendant of’. O’Kelly means ‘descendant of Kelly’ and O’Donovan ‘descendant of Donovan’. Some people were named after their mother instead. The surname Orange means ‘son of Orangia’, a girls’ name used about 800 years ago, that went out of fashion. The technical term for this type of surname is patronymic , which is Latin for ‘father’s name’, or matronymic , meaning mother’s name. 140 Names, And What They Really Tell Us 110-167Chs 10-12 who am I:Who am I 22/12/08 16:41 Page 141 Place names Thirdly, surnames can come from place names. Families who owned places might use the place names as their surnames. The Birmingham family owned Birmingham, and the Berkeleys (also spelled Barclay) own Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. Families who didn’t own any land might be known by the name of the place where they lived. The Lincoln family gained their surname because their ancestors were from Lincoln, and the London family were from London. The technical term for this type of surname is locative - where the family was located. Types of place Fourthly, surnames can come from A medieval farmer’s children may have been given descriptions of where ancestors lived. the surname Farmer. People who lived by a wood, hill, forest or lake might be surnamed Woods, Hill, Forest or Lake. People who lived by Jobs man-made things like a bridge, castle, Finally, people’s jobs could could become hall (a type of big house) or church might surnames. A farmer or painter might be be surnamed Bridge, Castle, Hall or Church. surnamed Farmer or Painter. Many of the The technical term for this type of surname jobs people did in the Middle Ages are no is topographic – describing the family by longer very common today, but they are the place where they lived. remembered by surnames. Men who fired bows and arrows were archers, hence the surname Archer. The fletcher was the man who made the arrows, hence the surname Fletcher. The bowyer made bows, hence the surname Bowyer. The surname Carrot means someone who grew carrots. The technical term for this type of surname is metonymic , which actually means ‘alternative name’, but is used for surnames derived from jobs. Names, And What They Really Tell Us 141.

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